Two-Step Temptation by Emma Jay Page B

heart wanted to grab on with both hands. He was saying all the right things, but she couldn’t wrap her head about what it could mean.
    “I…need to think.”
    “No.” He grasped her hand and pressed it to his chest, her knuckles against the warm skin there. “Don’t put that armor back on. Come back to bed.”
    That would be a mistake. She loved the armor, as he called it. She needed it for her own protection. But his voice was soothing, and she looked up into those blue eyes.
    The blue eyes of the man she knew better than she’d known any man, the eyes of a man who she trusted. The man she wanted to take this chance with. She opened her palm against his chest and lifted her face, inviting his kiss. His exhale relaxed the muscles beneath her hand and he bent his head, his lips first testing, then possessive in his victory. For once, she didn’t mind losing as she invited his tongue into her mouth, as she glided her fingertips over the smooth, warmth of his chest. His erection grew between them, brushing the bare skin of her belly. Smiling against his mouth, she moved closer, trapping his cock between them, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. His breathing changed and he folded his arms around her waist, pulling her flush to him.
    The kiss changed, growing sweeter, somehow, his lips stroking across hers, his tongue teasing the sensitive seam, his fingers moving in rhythm along her spine. Everything in her melted—her resistance, her heart, her doubts, her fears.
    Then she was beneath him on the bed, his cock pressing at the opening of her unfastened jeans, his hands cupping her face, fingers trailing through the fine hair at her temples as he did no more than kiss her. Seducing her when she was already seduced, giving her time to adjust to the shift in their relationship. She smiled again and surrendered to the joy of a new relationship with a man who wanted to be with her.
    He released her mouth and trailed his lips across her cheek, to her ear and down her throat, nuzzling until she arched against him. His hand covered her breast, stroking over her nipple. She wanted his mouth there, at her throat, everywhere. He chuckled when she urged his head down.
    “Slow. This time, I want to go slow.”
    She wanted to ride the delight of her newly opened emotions, but again surrendered to his touch, his desires. He trailed his fingers down her waist, tickling her so she gasped, and he played his touch over the skin of her hip at the waistband of her jeans. Desire hummed between her legs as he continued his caress above the fabric of her panties, then moved no lower. Following his pace, she coursed her touch down his back, over all those lovely muscles, circling her fingers at the small of his back. He growled against her breast and sipped her nipple between his lips. Finally, finally, he reached beneath the edge of her panties and stroked her mound, still not delivering his touch where she wanted it, where she needed it.
    She cupped his very fine ass, and he closed his teeth over her nipple, looking up at her with lifted eyebrows. To see if she liked it or to send her a message that he was setting the rhythm? She couldn’t bear it anymore and lifted her hips, shifting his touch. He lifted his hand away and she opened her mouth to protest, but he only moved to tug down her jeans, baring her, opening her, and lifting her hips to his mouth.
    She thought she would go off the minute he touched his tongue to her, but she rode the ridge of pleasure, held her breath as she held his gaze. He glided his touch over her opening, wetting his fingers before sliding them down to her ass, teasing the sensitive nerves there.
    And she came, came hard in an orgasm that tore through her, tore her apart. He didn’t release her, continued his intimate kiss, sucked her clit until she was limp.
    For just a moment, he pulled away to sheath himself. He returned and rose over her, pressing his hips forward, entering her slowly so that all her